By Ugo Aliogo
The Federal High Court in Lagos on Thursday fixed November 2 to
hear the N200 million fundamental human rights enforcement suit filed by wife of
former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, Patience, against Skye Bank Plc.
Joined as defendants in the suit are former Special
Adviser to President Jonathan on Domestic Affairs, Waripamo Owei Dudafa, and
the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Four firms linked to Dudafa were also joined as
defendants in the suit.
They are Pluto Property and Investment Company
Limited; Seagate Property Development and Investment Co. Limited; Trans Ocean
Property and Investment Company Limited and Development Company Limited and
Globus Integrated Service Limited.
Patience Jonathan filed the suit to protest against
the ‘No Debit Order’ placed by the EFCC on the bank accounts of the four
companies domiciled in Skye Bank.
The four companies were said to have a total of
$15.5million in their bank accounts, which the EFCC had since last year July
frozen.
The EFCC froze the accounts while investigating
Dudafa for money laundering.
But Patience claims that the funds in the companies’ accounts
belonged to her, though she was not a signatory to any of the accounts.
In an affidavit filed in support of the suit, one
Sammie Somiari explained that Patience had asked Dudafa to help her open five
bank accounts, only for Dudafa to open one in Patience’s name and four others
in the names of companies linked to him.
According to Somiari, Dudafa had on March 22, 2010,
brought two Skye Bank officers, Demola Bolodeoku and Dipo Oshodi, to meet
Patience at home to open five accounts.
He, however, claimed that after the five accounts
were opened, the former first lady later discovered that Dudafa opened only one
of the accounts in her name while the other four were opened in the names of
companies belonging to Dudafa.
Somiari added: "The applicant (Patience) complained
about this to Dudafa, who, at his prompting and instance, promised to effect
the change of the said accounts to the applicant's name, and to effect this
change Dudafa brought the said bank manager, Mr. Dipo Oshodi, who purported to
have effected the changes. This was about April 2014.
"The applicant is not a director, shareholder
or participant in the companies named in the aforementioned four accounts.
"The bank official, Oshodi, as it would
appear, did not effect or reflect the instruction of the applicant to change
the said accounts to her name(s) despite repeated requests of the applicant.
"Besides, the ATM credit cards bearing the
said companies' names were brought to the applicant by Oshodi of the 2nd
respondent bank, who promised to replace them once the cards bearing the
changed names were available, but he never did.
"However, since 2010 up until 2014 and
thereafter, the applicant had been using the cards on the said accounts and
operating the said accounts without let or hindrance.
"Even in May, June and July 2016, the
applicant traveled overseas for medical treatment and was using the said credit
cards abroad up until July 7, 2016, or thereabouts when the cards stopped
functioning."
In the suit filed before Justice Mohammed Idris,
Patience, through his lawyer, Mr. Ifedayo Adedipe (SAN), is seeking N200million
damages against Skye Bank for denying her access to the $15.5million in the
four accounts.
She also wants the court to lift the ‘No Debit
Order’ placed on the accounts by the EFCC.
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